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The shower handle in my second bathroom was broken. I couldn’t adjust the temperature so I was taking really hot showers. I called a plumber. The guy looked at it for 10 seconds (literally) and quoted me $450 for the repair. He wouldn’t tell me what part was needed or any details on the repair. He wanted me to trust him.

I called a second plumber. He actually spent some time and disassembled the unit. He talked a better talk and quoted me $350. Still no details on what was broken.

He was slow to get the part he claimed I needed, so I looked up the details of the unit I had and found the installation instructions. I spent 1 hour and I fixed it myself. I didn’t buy any new parts. Nothing was broken, it was just assembled incorrectly.

I’m sure 99% of people would have paid the money.

Lesson: do research and be a savvy consumer. Whether it’s a big purchase like a house or car, or something small like a home repair, know exactly what you’re paying for and fight back if you’re not getting the answers you want.

Kate and I went to the Oakland Zoo for the first time this past weekend. We loved the sky ride, which lets you see the animals from above, and also gave you an incredible view of San Francisco. Highly recommended.

Kate and I had a wonderful time in Ireland earlier this month. Here’s a quick summary of what we did and what we loved.

Saturday: Landed in Dublin and explored the city

Sunday: Explored Dublin, Book of Kells, Guinness tour

Monday: Drove to Galway. Then drove to Cliffs of Moher.

Tuesday: Drove to Connemara

Wednesday: Drove to Killarney and explored the town

Thursday: Tour of Ring of Kerry then drove to Kilkenny

Friday: Explored Kilkenny

Saturday: Drove to Dublin airport and flew home

Overall a lot of driving but I loved it. We had a VW Golf TDI for the week. Really great car. It was my first time driving a diesel! The roads in Ireland were some of the most fun I’ve ever driven. We spent little time on the motorways, and most time on curvy and hilly regional roads. Always beautiful. We clocked about 1k kilometers!

The food in Ireland was much better than I expected. Whether we were at a nice restaurant or just a pub, everything was fresh and delicious. Between Ireland and New Zealand, I’m really starting to see that if you have fresh ingredients, you don’t need to do much to have great food. Why isn’t food in the US as fresh?

And of course we drank well. Lots and lots of beer. Basically every pub we went to had Smithwicks, Guinness, Heineken, Bud, Coors light, and Bullmers. I definitely could have used an IPA after a while (or any variety for that matter!).

We loved Ireland and hope to go back in the future so we can see the north as well.